LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino refused to talk up Tottenham's chances of winning the Premier League title after their 4-1 win over Sunderland in Saturday's early kickoff, a performance he described as "fantastic."
Spurs responded perfectly to Wednesday's 1-0 defeat to Leicester, which left them trailing the Foxes and joint-leaders Arsenal by seven points, to consolidate their position in the Premier League top four ahead of the 15:00 GMT kickoffs.
Sunderland took the lead through Patrick van Aanholt but a Christian Eriksen double, a Mousa Dembele strike and a Harry Kane penalty gave Spurs a comfortable victory over Sam Allardyce's strugglers, and moved them to within four points of the league leaders.
Pochettino was delighted with the display but said he would not talk about Spurs' "objectives" until the final weeks of the campaign.
"It's early to start to start to speak about the title," the Tottenham coach told a news conference.
"We need to improve a lot, to learn a lot, we have a young squad. It's important to keep working hard because in football the situation can turn quickly. It's true we are in good position, we are fourth in the table and it [the title] is a realistic situation.
"We need to keep working hard and try to win the next game. It's always step-by-step.
"Always for me, the objective is the end and starts when you have 10, nine, eight games until the league finishes. This is the realistic moment when you can start thinking about objectives."
This week, Pochettino backed Eriksen to start scoring regularly soon after the Dane bagged his first goal since October in the 2-2 FA Cup third-round draw with Leicester last weekend.
And Eriksen responded, equalising with a bobbling effort before his 30-yard strike found the top corner via hapless Sunderland debutant Jan Kirchhoff to make it 3-1.
Pochettino said: "He's one of the best players we have. He's a very talented player. But we need to understand that he's very young.
"He's only 23 years-old and we need to give him the opportunity to have ups and downs at different periods in his career and over the season but I'm very pleased for him because I know when you don't score.
"I'm pleased for him and the squad, his teammates are very happy for him.
"For him, and for all the squad. All the players want to score, want to help the team to achieve important things. Our mentality is strong in this way. Every player that has the opportunity to play or from bench has a real impact and today the atmosphere in the dressing room is fantastic."
Kane scored his 15th goal of the season from the penalty spot after Danny Rose was felled by substitute Kirchhoff but Spurs continue to be linked with a host of new strikers, including Fulham's Moussa Dembele.
Pochettino admitted Spurs need to wary that any new additions do not disrupt the dressing room, adding: "We need to careful because the changing room had a very good balance today and we need to keep this energy.
"If we add some players, it's because they can help and improve and add something different. It's very clear the profile we find. Maybe it'll happen, maybe not and we'll see in the next few days."
The Argentine added that new addition Shilow Tracey, 17, was an academy player and stressed that Kyle Walker had been rested, rather than dropped.